Polycom has agreed to acquire the assets of Hewlett-Packard's Visual Collaboration business, including its Halo videoconferencing products and managed services, as part of a broad partnership for unified communications.

The companies did not disclose the size of the transaction, which they expect to close in the third quarter after regulatory and other approvals. The deal is intended to give greater reach to Polycom, a unified communications specialist, and allow HP to focus on cloud computing and connectivity, the companies said in a press release.

As part of the strategic partnership, HP will resell Polycom unified communications products including infrastructure, personal and group UC devices, UC managed services and audio-video software.

Both partners are rivals of Cisco Systems, which expanded its videoconferencing and unified communications businesses last year by acquiring Norwegian business video specialist Tandberg. Cisco plans to continue competing aggressively in both video and cloud computing as it focuses on fewer core businesses.